[116, 164-167; 168-181; 184-191] My freshman year I didn’t really take any electrical specific classes, instead I took general classes that seemed applicable to every other major such as English, Math, and Science. The only really exciting engineering part during freshman year was Engineering Design Lab. During the first term, we made a Rube Goldberg machine. I made the Rube Goldberg machine with my ex-roommate and ex-friends then I moved on to a better group and we made a LEGO robot that performed a series of specific tasks. The idea was you set the robot down in an arena and it went around and it picked up different canisters based on what color it was, it put it to different corners of the arena. During my last freshman term, I chose to do a self-directed project instead of a typical class where they give you all that instruction. So me and my two group members, who were also my group members for the robot, we chose a mentor who’s an assistant teaching professor at ‘northeast institution’. We decided that we would be making a set of solar powered window blinds that raise themselves and lower themselves, powered by solar panels that are on the windows. One of my group members was responsible for the mechanical design of the gear system and the blinds and that ratio. My other team member was responsible for the solar panels and their integration into the circuit. I was responsible for the circuit, the controller, and programming the controller. During that project, I taught myself C++, which was very difficult but also a good thing to know. We just very barely got it to work by the end of the project when we were supposed to present it.